David Mark Bailey

David M. Bailey

David Mark Bailey, 44, of Earlysville, died of brain cancer on Saturday, October 2, 2010, in Charlottesville, Virginia, and was welcomed into everlasting life at his place at the Table with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

David was born February 26, 1966, the son of Kenneth and Ethel Bailey, missionaries to the Middle East. For the first 22 years of his life, his home was Beirut, Lebanon, including the first 10 years of the Lebanese civil war. Because of war, the family was obliged to evacuate first to Switzerland in 1967, and later to Cyprus in 1982. David's two final years of high school were completed in a private school in Germany because he was, as a young man, especially vulnerable on the streets of Beirut.

David attended Grove City College in western Pennsylvania, where he met and married his soul mate, Leslie McGarvey, of Emlenton, Pennsylvania. During his college years, he was active as a performing songwriter, playing evening and weekend gigs with a music partner. He also enjoyed choir, frat life, acting, and organizing an underground newspaper. David graduated with majors in English and Communication Arts. In the late 1980's, David and Leslie relocated to the Washington, D.C., area where David worked for the United States government in satellite imagery analysis. His career evolved to training and then program management with numerous software subcontractors, ending with employment with Eastman Software in Massachusetts.

Their daughter, Kelcey, was born in 1992, and son, Cameron, in 1994.

The day prior to moving to the Boston area, in July of 1996, David was diagnosed with brain cancer - Glioblastoma Multiforme IV (GBM). He was expected to have fewer than two years to live. Eager to have his life make a difference in the lives of others, he gave up his career in the software industry and, with a great leap of faith, launched a third career as a performing songwriter - a "troubadour of hope." Following two surgeries, radiation, experimental chemotherapy and nuclear therapy, David criss-crossed America (and Europe) singing in coffee houses and churches, for cancer conferences and cancer survivor groups for 12 years. David wrote all of his own songs, which grew out of his experiences of war and of battling a deadly cancer. He sang of faith, hope, love, and of living life to it's fullest each day. He experienced a recurrence of brain cancer in late 2008, recovering enough to tour in 2009 and early 2010. Enduring numerous additional surgeries and difficult treatments, David made a final tour in July of this year.

David is survived by Leslie, his wife of 23 years; his children, Kelcey and Cameron; his parents, Kenneth and Ethel Bailey; a sister, Sara Makari and her husband, Victor; numerous sisters- and brothers-in-law and eight nieces and nephews.

To quote a line from one of David's songs, "The tears of the angels form a river where you can wash your pain, and even in the middle of the thunder, don't forget the love inside the rain." His theme was "There may be years of tears behind you, but right now you've got One More Day." He leaves behind him a musical legacy of 23 professionally-recorded CDs. His music and his personal testimony have affected the lives of countless thousands in this country and around the world.

The family offers deep gratitude to Doctor Henry Friedman, Doctor Allan Friedman and Doctor David Reardon at Duke and Doctor David Schiff at University of Virginia Medical Center and their caring staffs. We also offer loving thanks to our family of caregivers at the Hospice House and Hospice of the Piedmont in Charlottesville.

Memorial gifts are welcome and may be made to Blue Ridge Presbyterian Church, 6566 Spring Hill Road, Ruckersville, VA 22968. Half of those gifts will be equally divided between the following brain tumor organizations, The American Brain Tumor Association, the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke, Gray Matters Foundation, the Florida Brain Tumor Association and T.H.E. Brain Trust.

David was a charter member and Elder at Blue Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ruckersville, Virginia, where he co-chaired the Evangelism Committee. Baptized into the Covenant, he was a lifelong Christian and we will have a Celebration of his life and of the Resurrection at a Memorial Service 2 p.m. Tuesday, October 19, 2010, at Meadows Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, Virginia. His daughter suggests an attire of tie-dye, if you like. David would be wearing jeans and ask you to check out his website, www.davidmbailey.com.


This obituary was originally published in the Daily Progress.